Up All Night Recap: “Travel Day”

This week on a scorching Up All Night: Who reveals their “coin slot”? Who joins “the mile high club”? And who “heats up a Tostino’s” while everyone else is out of town? (IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.)

Ava’s old bandmate (Alanis Morissette) is getting married, in a mystery location that requires an airplane to get to. Chris and Reagan were planning to stay home because of their BABY, but Terry and Gene agree with that decision, which means it is definitely wrong. So they pack up their formula and hit the road. Of course, the best laid plans end up with Reagan screaming “bomb” and being taken into the glass-walled security room. Possible highlight of the episode: Chris changing Amy’s diaper while she’s nestled in a gray security bin.

Though it doesn’t take a train conductor to predict that their trip will go off the rails (GET IT?), the story maintains a measure of self-awareness (“This stupid cart is like a metaphor for this entire trip!”). And instead of throwing us a boring moral about letting go of control and taking risks or whatever, the show brings it back to the specifics of Chris and Reagan’s relationship. Her mini-oration about pinto beans was the most rousing legume speech I’ve ever heard on a network television show. In turn, Chris’ having her back by offering to buy everyone on the flight “beers and bloody’s” felt more earned and realistic than your standard “making a speech in public to prove my love for my wife” gambit.

Ava and Kevin’s story got less airtime, but was still sweet. It was a fitting expression of Ava’s theatrical nature that she “never” wants to get married, but Kevin’s statement that he “never never never, ever, period” wants to is enough to send her into a tailspin and call Reagan from the toilet phone. But, as is the golden rule on television, being honest about your feelings solves all problems, and the two of them agree to “never say never.” And things conclude, as all sitcom episodes should, with a hip hop performance of “Back it Up (Into My Face).” Sound LLC truly are the Hall and Oates of hip-hop.